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Wednesday, March 13, 2013

As enjoyable as it was, no one really expected David Clarkson to keep up the torrid goal pace he set early in the season when he scored 10 times in the Devils’ first 14 games.

It’s also safe to say no one expected Clarkson to go completely cold after that and not score a goal in 12 consecutive games heading into tonight’s meeting with the Philadelphia Flyers at Prudential Center.

“You feel like you can keep going, but it’s a tight schedule, a lot games in a lot of days,” Clarkson said after today’s morning skate. “Not just that, but I’m not a 50-goal scorer that’s going to keep doing that. I know what type of game I play and I’m somebody that (the scoring) seems to come in bunches when it does. So, I feel like I’m playing the same way. I’m going to continue to do the same thing and that’s really all I can do.”

Clarkson may not be a 50-goal scorer, but he was a 30-goal scorer last season for the first time in his career and has become a pivotal part of the Devils’ offense. Scoring 30 in a lockout-shortened 48-game schedule was unrealistic, but surpassing a 30-goal pace (roughly 18 goals in 48 games) was something Clarkson was well on his way to do doing when he scored his 10th goal – the winner in a 5-3 victory over Philadelphia on Feb. 15.

And it’s not a coincidence that when he stopped scoring after that – along with pretty much everyone else -- the Devils stopped winning consistently.

“I’m getting chances,” said Clarkson, whose 10 goals are still the most on the Devils. “You look (against) Buffalo (last Thursday), I had two empty nets that the goalie somehow gloves it. So, the chances are there. We’re not scoring as a team. It’s not one, two, three guys. We had one (game) where (Ilya Kovalchuk) had two (goals against Carolina), but the puck, the last 12 games or so, it’s just not going in as a group. That’s pretty much it.”

Devils coach Pete DeBoer said that there might be some bad puck luck working against Clarkson recently, but believes is more than that.

“I think it’s a little bit of both,” DeBoer said. “Your natural reaction when the puck’s not going in for you is to maybe get away from some of the things that made successful. With David, for me, it’s getting pucks to the net. He’s a guy that gets shots on net from all different angles. We don’t have a team with a real shot mentality, so that’s important and I think he gets rewarded for that when he does that.

“When you look at his shot totals, I think there’s a correlation between getting the puck to the net and the goals that go in.”

Clarkson is tied with Kovalchuk for the team lead with 92 shots on goal, but has only 32 over his 12 consecutive goal-less games after registering 60 while he was scoring 10 times in the first 14 games.

“I think we’ve got to find a way to get more shots. I guess that’s what he’s saying. I’m not sure,” Clarkson said. “You’ve got to make plays too, but I guess he’s saying he wants more shots out of the team and out of me, I guess.”

DeBoer said it’s not just Clarkson that needs to shoot more, though.

“We have a lot of guys that are probably pass-first players – Kovalchuk, (Patrik) Elias,” he said. “That’s not a bad thing. They’re unselfish, but I think as a group I’d like to see our team have more of a shot mentality, get pucks to the net.”

Clarkson has tried changing some other things. He joked, “I gassed all my sticks.”

“You do change things,” he said. “You get new ones. … Two games ago, I hit an open net and hit the goalie. That’s what’s going on right now. So, I have to continue to keep playing the same way, keep pushing and keep getting to the areas of the ice that made me successful earlier in the season.”

Clarkson believes that the puck will start going in for him again eventually.

“As long as this team’s winning, I don’t really care if it’s me or who it is scoring, but they’ll go in if I get back to those areas of the ice,” he said. “I’m getting chances. If you’re not getting chances, then you worry. The chances are there, I’ve just got to continue to keep going to those areas of the ice.”

***The Devils have won two of their last three games – both in shootouts – since a six-game losing streak, but are still looking for their first regulation win since Feb. 21 in Washington and their first two-game winning streak since a home-and-home sweep of Pittsburgh on Feb. 9 and 10.

DeBoer feels his team is on its way back to winning more consistently, though.

“It’s never perfect in a coach’s eyes, but I think we’re getting rewarded for some of our hard work lately, which is what we need, and, hopefully, we can build on that,” he said.

The Devils enter tonight’s game in seventh place in the Eastern Conference, just two points behind Ottawa and Toronto, which are tied for fifth place, but also just one point ahead of the eighth-place Rangers and Winnipeg.

The Flyers are in 11th place, four points behind the Devils, so this home-and-home series – the teams meet again Friday night at Wells Fargo Center is an opportunity for both teams. Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov said Tuesday that his team will be “done” if it is swept by the Devils in the two games – the Devils have won six in a row from the Flyers including last season’s playoff series.

“I’m not thinking about the Flyers. I’m thinking about us,” DeBoer said. “We have an opportunity to put some distance between us and one of the teams that are beneath us in the standings trying to catch us and that’s the bottom line. Points are critical.”

***DeBoer is sticking with the same lineup as he used in Sunday’s 3-2 shootout win over Winnipeg, which means left wing Harri Pesonen, who was called up Tuesday, will have to wait at least two more days to make his NHL debut.

“I would have, of course, wanted to play, but we’ll wait, come here and be ready if something happens or the lineup changes, but I can’t complain,” Pesonen said.

Pesonen hopes not to be nervous if he does get the chance to play Friday or after that in the NHL.

“I try not to be nervous,” he said. “I don’t want to be nervous because if you are then you aren’t playing the game as you should be. I’ll just try to be myself and be positive and be ready if I get called up to the lineup.”

***With Martin Brodeur still out with a back injury – he skated on his own today for the second day in a row – Johan Hedberg will start his 10th consecutive game in net for the Devils. He hasn’t started 10 in a row since Jan. 5 to Jan. 23, 2001 with Pittsburgh.

About

TOM GULITTI has covered the New Jersey Devils for The Record since 2002. Prior to that, he covered the New York Rangers for four years. Gulitti joined The Record in 1998 after six years at The North Jersey Herald News. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric-Literature.